Interview with Bill Love - Olympic Club and more

[Jay Flemma]

Then it should be a great Open

[Jay Flemma]

Hey Tiger (and other members) how did you come to choose Oly over other area clubs like SFGC or Cali Club?  I'd love to hear stories about what attracted you there:)

[Carl Nichols]

Does anyone call it Oly?

[David_Tepper]

"Does anyone call it Oly?"

Carl Nichols,

The club's website address is: www.olyclub.com

DT

[Carl Nichols]

DT:
NGLA's website is https://www.natgolflinks.org/, but something tells me people rarely call it the "Nat."

[Jay Flemma]

But they do call it the National.

[Carl Nichols]

Jay:
No doubt.  And I've heard people call the Olympic Club both "Olympic" and "The O Club."  I just haven't personally ever heard someone call it "Oly," assuming that rhymes with "roly poly." 

[Jay Flemma]

I didn't coin it, I heard it from a bunch of other places.  Don't worry - I only use it here and on Twitter, not in articles or interviews.

"O Club"?? Ick!

[Jay Flemma]

Guys a question - John Gordon in "Great Golf Courses of America" lists Wilfred Reid as the architect of the Lake Course, but others credit Sam Whiting.  What's the real story?

[Tim Passalacqua]

Jay,

Wilfrid Reid designed an 18 hole course, named Lakeside Golf Club, on the property where the Olympic Club is presently.  The Olympic bought the property in 1918 and by 1922 they had acquired 370 acres of land (enough for 36 holes).  In 1924, Willie Watson designed the Lake and Ocean courses with the help of Sam Whiting (the golf professional and superintendent at the Olympic Club).  Following a bad winter storm in 1927, Sam Whiting, redesigned the two golf courses to move the the Lake and the majority of the Ocean to the east of Skyline Blvd.  The present routing of the golf course is from the Sam Whiting design of 1927. 

[Jay Flemma]

Thank you.  Contact me off list for more.

[Howard Riefs]

Golf.com interview with Pat Finlen about course changes the last 10 years: Length,  bent/rye fairways, #8 and #18 green 

http://www.golf.com/video/olympic-made-longer-stronger-2012-us-open

[Will Lozier]

Golf.com interview with Pat Finlen about course changes the last 10 years: Length,  bent/rye fairways, #8 and #18 green  

http://www.golf.com/video/olympic-made-longer-stronger-2012-us-open

When the Director of Golf Maintenance Operations calls the new 18th green "benign", doesn't one have to call into question some of the changes made in Love's "renovation"?!  At least that change?  Who wants the 18th green at their course - or the US Open - to be "benign"?  Especially given what they had?  Or, has he just made an inappropriate word choice?

[Kevin_Reilly]

Golf.com interview with Pat Finlen about course changes the last 10 years: Length,  bent/rye fairways, #8 and #18 green  

http://www.golf.com/video/olympic-made-longer-stronger-2012-us-open

When the Director of Golf Maintenance Operations calls the new 18th green "benign", doesn't one have to call into question some of the changes made in Love's "renovation"?!  At least that change?  Who wants the 18th green at their course - or the US Open - to be "benign"?  Especially given what they had?  Or, has he just made an inappropriate word choice?

Will, you misunderstood or mis-heard his comment.  He was referring to the 2000 flattening of the green that was done by then-superintendent John Fleming.  The work later done by Bill Love adjusted the green to the current "non benign" state.

[Wayne Wiggins, Jr.]

Kevin -

Is the size and shape of the green back to the pre-Fleming work?  I can't remember, as I only played the course a handful of times prior to the '98 Open.

WW

[Tim Passalacqua]

Wayne,

I believe they added 3 feet to the back left and back right corners of the green.  More pin placements.

[Jeff Fortson]

Au contrair, mon ami, I loved the old 8th. Holes in ones are rare,  Wishing for a hole in one is common. With the old 8th, if you hit a decent shot, you walked up to the green with the hope you were in the hole or close. Almost all the time you were disappointed, but the feeling walking up there after a good shot was always fun.

The secret to a good blind par-3 is that the hole needs to be short and reasonably easy and I like fairly large greens. The 8th at Olympic had all these features.

Cheers,
Dan King

For every theory ye propose about the improvement o' the game, I'll show ye how the game is fadin' away, losin' its old charm, becomin' mechanzied by the Americans and the rest o' the world that blindly follows them.  
 --Julian Lang

My father's first hole in one of his life came on the old #8 back in the early 90's.  He waited 30+ years to make his first one and he had to endure that blind walk up the hill and fortunately had the thrill of seeing his ball in the bottom of the cup.  +1 indeed to you Dan!

Jeff